五十得子

50歲時再次當上爸爸，我心中不免有些打鼓：隨著時間的流淌，年事漸高的自己能否稱職陪伴女兒成長？然而，我最終拋卻了這些顧慮，新生命帶來的感動是獻給50歲最好的禮物。

By John Pentland

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Turning 50 was a momentous[2] occasion for me. Other people celebrate by doing something out of the norm[3]. One friend made a pilgrimage[4] from Vancouver to Seattle to see his favourite high-school band, Rush. Another travelled to Italy with his partner to sip red wine and walk cobblestone streets.[5] Someone else bought his dream motorcycle to cruise the back roads of Alberta.[6]

Not me. My wife and I decided to have a baby. Yup[7], a baby for my 50th. Actually, it was far from[8] sudden. Getting pregnant is supposed to be easy, but it wasn’t. The waiting room of an infertility[9] clinic is an anxious place to sit. I found myself wondering what the other couples’ struggles had been. At our appointment, a doctor told my wife that at her age, the chances were slim[10]. “You are 40,” he pointed out.

I could see my wife’s frustration mounting[11]. Three times in 20 minutes, he gently reminded her how old she was. I thought that if he said that one more time, he was the one who would need a doctor.

We proceeded to follow the recommended path and rejoiced at the news of the retrieval of 33 eggs, more than a 40-year-old should produce.[12]

To our shock and surprise, the first implant[13] failed. “What? How hard can this be?” The second attempt also failed and our spirits sank.

We were getting a lesson in just how difficult it is to get pregnant. Everywhere we went there were babies in strollers and carriers[14]. We felt like losers. We wondered, “What’s the matter with us?” We became aware of the pain many couples experience in waiting for and worrying about pregnancy. It crushes many a couple.

As we waited for the pregnancy test results, I was silently preparing for negative news. I busied myself with[15] hanging a new shower curtain. Suddenly, I heard a gasp[16]. I was prepared to hold my wife in grief, but instead I held her in joy as we gazed at the plus sign shining from the stick.[17]

Pregnancy birthed hurdles we hadn’t expected.[18] Six months along, Anna was ordered to spend her days on bed rest. An active woman on bed rest isn’t a good combination. The inactivity brought a new hurdle in the form of a blood clot and twice-daily shots.[19] She hobbled from room to room on crutches and in pain.[20] We nursed this new detour in quiet hopefulness.[21] How much harder can this be?

For six weeks we attended prenatal[22] classes. It was hilarious—my wife would hobble in on crutches and I would read the handouts with reading glasses perched on my nose.[23] As I looked around the room at the 20-year-old wearing a backward baseball cap, the woman with an ankle tattoo and the gum-chewing teenager my own son’s age, I wondered if I really was ready to do it all again.[24]

One of the funniest days of our pregnancy journey was when we took our 18-year-old son to the airport for his gap-year[25] travels to Australia. We said our farewells with tears, photos and hugs. Instead of a celebratory beer, we drove home and sat with a prenatal nurse as she explained the birthing process one last time. I burst out laughing when she demonstrated how a fetus slides through the birth canal.[26] An hour earlier our son had slid out the door, backpack in hand, into the world that awaited.

Finally, the big day came and we held our beautiful, six-pound miracle daughter, Charlotte, in our arms. All our worry, pain and grief disappeared. The first few weeks we were spoiled and cared for as people showered[27] us with food and gifts. We truly felt blessed.

What has surprised me the most about the birth of our child was the reaction of our teenagers and their friends. It was breathtaking to watch our kids cradle their sister at the hospital.[28] Their reverence, tenderness and joy were beautiful.[29] And it’s given them an opportunity to ask about their own early years: “Did I keep you up all night too?” “When did I crawl[30]?” “Ugh, did you force vegetables on me too?”

One introverted[31] friend of our son called from university to congratulate us. A 13-year-old wrote a first Christmas letter to our baby. Many kids visited us over the holidays with smiles, open arms and a tentative[32] curiosity as they reached out to greet our newborn. Their openness rekindled[33] my hope in the future.

So often I find myself doing the math. When she is 5 and in the play zone, I will be sipping free coffee at McDonald’s. When she is 15, I will cash my old-age pension cheque to pay for her driver’s education. When she is being fitted for braces, I might be trying out a new set of dentures.[34] When she is 20 and I am in a retirement home[35], she will call me for money for university.

But through all the math, I can honestly say that numbers and age don’t matter. My 50th birthday child was the best way to celebrate half a century.

Vocabulary

1. Dada: 爸爸。

2. momentous: 極重要的。

3. norm: 標準，規范。

4. pilgrimage: 到敬仰的某人/某事物處之行。

5. sip: 小口喝，抿；cobblestone:（用于鋪路面等的）圓石，鵝卵石。

6. cruise: 徘徊于，緩慢行駛于；Alberta: 阿爾伯達省（加拿大省名）。

7. yup:〈美俚〉是，是的（肯定答復）。

8. far from sth.: 毫不，遠非。

9. infertility: 不孕癥。

10. slim: 微薄的。

11. mount: 增加，上升。

12. rejoice: 喜悅，欣喜；retrieval: 找回；egg: 卵子。

13. implant: 把（某物）植入（體內）。

14. stroller:（手推）輕便嬰兒車；carrier: 嬰兒背帶。

15. busy oneself with sth.: 使自己忙于某事。

16. gasp: 喘氣，喘息。

17. grief: 悲傷，悲痛；gaze at: 凝視；plus sign: 加號；shine: 閃光，發亮。

18. birth: v. 產生；hurdle: 障礙，困難。

19. inactivity: 不活動；blood clot: 血塊；shot: 一次注射，一針。

20. hobble: 跛行，一瘸一拐地走；crutch: 拐杖。

21. 我們帶著平靜的希望對待這次新的困難。

22. prenatal: 產前的。

23. hilarious: 滑稽的；handout:（分發給聽眾的）材料，講義；perch: 架著。

24. 我環顧著房間，看到反戴著棒球帽的二十多歲的年輕人，腳踝上刺青的女人以及和我兒子差不多大的嚼著口香糖的青年，我懷疑自己是否真的準備好了再經歷一次（撫養孩子）。

25. gap-year: 空檔年（指中學畢業以后到上大學前的一年，有的年輕人利用這一年旅游、掙錢或積累一點工作經驗）。

26. fetus: 胎兒；slide: 滑行；birth canal: 產道。

27. shower: v. 大量給予。

28. breathtaking: 非常激動人心的；cradle: 輕輕地抱著。

29. reverence: 尊敬；tenderness: 溫柔。

30. crawl: 爬行。

31. introverted: 內向的。

32. tentative: 試探性的。

33. rekindle: 重新點燃。

34. 當她到了帶牙箍的年紀，我可能正需試戴一副新的假牙。

35. retirement home: 老人福利院。

（來源：英語學習雜志）